fixpafandomcom-20200216-history
4Rs Grant Application
=AlphaLab Application= : Please complete all of the required fields below. : Just the questions are at Biz Questions from Alph Lab. ---- Product/concept and Market 1.) Please provide a brief description (2-3 sentences) of your company and product/concept.* The proposed software development company, , creates applications that act as handshakes for the migration of data to wikis, from wikis and among wikis. The start-up model leverages wikis as central informational depot. * Data travels from content elsewhere through the to an appropriate wiki. * Data travels from one wiki to another wiki with the help of tools. * Data travels from the wiki to other products, such as books and hand-held devices published with the help of . * Data from a wiki can also interact with other data sets, such as voter-registration information. enables the interactions. * Data for wikis is generated by real-world outreach. Conferences, radio shows and lecture series generate materials that funnel to wikis. ---- 2.) Please provide a more detailed description of your company and product/concept. What is new or unique about it?* leverages wikis as a central theme in the early phases. The software development of has two purpose of its products: publishing wiki content and creating applications for interacting with wikis. # Publishing wiki content: ## Two existing wikis, one about local community / civics / politics (http://FixPA.wikia) and the other about sports, (http://AforAthlete.wikia.com) are further developed. ## The expands its wiki offerings on the local / political front with the Fix Network. ##The business model builds next to the phenomena of Wikipedia.org, the flagship wiki. The scaffold to Wikipedia.org in a number of ways. ### Wikiapedia.org is for neutral point of view knowledge. drives content of all points of view. See APOV vs. NPOV and 4Rs+Wikia+Wikipedia. # The applications come in many forms. ## Applications can be robust, stand-alone double-click software packages that are deployed on tablet PCs with archived data. ## Applets, helper apps, plug ins for existing tools and even menu-bar widgets are expected. ### A wide range of multimedia file formats are hosted by wikis and . The data handled by needs to be of various content types including text, audio, video, graphics, GIS, maps and databases. ## The applications and utilities of also represent outreach dealings. ### The business framework includes outreach and educational opportunities within communities so as to drive awareness to wikis and teach of the benefits of richer interactions with wikis. ### These, real-world handshakes promote wikis, tech-literacy, connected lifestyles and the goods and services. Few in the marketplace have built a business to craft widgets for wikis. This customized software development expertise will make stand out. Few in the marketplace are finding success in battling Wikipedia.org. Some have tried and failed. Others are still waging a fight. However, the approach of building wikis within Wikia.com and to closely associate, and scaphold upon, Wikipedia.org is different. The promotions and outreach plans are unique to the marketplace. Wikipedia.org, as well as most of the others, are passive and are content to reside only on the internet with little promotions. Historically, Wikipedia.org's outreach has been to seek donations from volunteers. will be aggressive in promotions, outreach, earned media PR, programming, book sales, hosting radio shows, recruitment of content. Our volunteers and social media connections, given the help with automation, is unique. The sales model has a B to B component, a difference in the social media and wiki marketplace. Business-to-business sales do not happen much in the bottoms-up, activist driven, wiki world. The others, such as Wikipedia.org and Wikia.com, have consumer driven sales / buy-in. With w:c:AforAthlete an individual can still choose to help, or not, own his own. However, with , given a powerful suite of avatars, applets and automation utilities, businesses, (i.e., a daily newspaper, TV News station) can opt-in as well. The early investors, such as AlphaLab.org, for will provide the means to allow for an approach from to all the content providers in Pennsylvania. The mainstream media professionals in Pennsylvania will have opportunities to hear of the new approach for building value in their investments by allowing the handshakes to occur. See 4Rs B2B. ---- 3.) What problem(s) is your product/concept going to solve? How do you know there is a problem(s)? (include market trends, data, etc.)* Problem: Today's media landscape has an abundance of one-sided discussions among fractionalized audiences. Efforts of can get folks onto the same page. The tools put wide ranging sources within the same domain. helps pull various opinions and any individual into the same networked discussion. Various views are given their own space to unfold, but other opinions are always only a click and page away. American citizens and voters are hungry for a "commonwealth of knowledge" that exists for everyone's benefit. : helps to "connect the dots" with issue pages linking to all sorts of platform and opinion statements. : With , recruitment to all citizens, voters and opinion-shapers is possible. The works to solve the problem of only preaching to the choir. The Fix Network give all US residents a home while it accommodates all points of view. : The sports and fitness wiki, A for Athlete can appeal to more universal audiences regardless of poltical options and locations. ::The Red State blog is popular with those on the right. It would only promote to conservative target markets. Problem: Society and today's media can't seem to sustain conversations. Busy, modern lifestyles of readers insure that most people miss important chucks of news. Few people can be full-time consumers of relevant news. :Many people are eager to join the conversations, but not right now. They'll come if allowed to arrive on their own pace. aims to "connect the dots." builds and sustains conversations over time because a wiki is an ideal container for timeless content. Wikis are great for offering reviews of recent developments of importance to the reader's desires. aims to provide plenty of ongoing support for conversations in the present, recent past and older. Our Fix Network of wikis can offer a perfect blend for people who want to get caught-up on the news and still have a sense of background history. :The early years of the internet (Usenet, ARPANET, LISTSERV, and bulletin board services) had FAQs documents and summary postings. Those practices were deployed by "list moms" / list clerks with a vengence in most settings. Those good-housekeeping practices have died. Likewise, the quality of content has suffered. The fix is the wiki. can strive to re-shape the practice by being and building a place for modern FAQs and summary documents. can sustain conversations by injecting FAQs within the process of handling handshakes of content from other sources to wikis. helps a sagging newspaper industry and fortifies the alternatives. The Fourth Estate has an important, watchdog role in the shared American democratic system. :Newspapers are dying. Local broadcasting news coverage has shrunk as well. Newspaper editors can't send reports to cover community meetings as much as in the past as their staff has been gutted. Professional watchdogs are often absent. Business incomes for newspapers is shrinking. The survival of the newspaper institutions as a pivotal role in society is a hot topic. Newspapers need more impact from news it produced in the past. The approach ties newspapers to wikis and send more web viewers to older web pages of the newspaper's archives, increasing page views and advertising income for them. An outcome of the sagging newspaper industry has been the arrival of the citizen journalist. :More tools are necessary for the casual reporter before his or her coverage of the news reaches the magnatude of what daily newspapers had delivered. More needs to be done before activists / bloggers / netizens are effective in passing the news. Likewise, citizen / consumer need to be trained to catch the news from these less traditional sources. The efforts of fill many needs of the citizen journalist and modern news consumer. :Francismary, a citizen watchdog and activist in Pittsburgh's Carlynton School District, opened a blog, http://Carlynton.blogspot.com, with some assistance from Mark Rauterkus. The blog was able to catalog statements from board members of some evil new policies as they hatched in recent months. Counter proposals were shared online too. Blogs helped but the overall impact is with more force when teamed with a wiki, at . More outlets and more tools are needed for citizen journalists to be more effective in struggles to fix their problems. helps watchdogs -- amateurs and professionals. Problem: Video sites (YouTube, Blip.TV, Google Video, Odio) and radio shows lack a robust organizational and cataloging system. Most radio shows are not being archived on the internet. Interviews with local candidates on local talk radio shows are seldom preserved. : Podcast also suffer from the same problem, but to a lesser degree. helps content creators such as vbloggers, podcasters, bloggers and even radio shows. A wiki, such as , plus tools from , would publicize video and audio offerings by building and updating content links to specific topic areas. :The scrape streams of radio content seeking local news-maker interviews. The audio chunks are parsed and repositioned in places in various wikis. Then the services allow the content to reach larger audiences for months and years into the future. :TalkShoe.com, a Pittsburgh firm, has a wonderful service but a problem persists in getting the content from its producers to be discovered to audiences beyond the loyal show listeners. Internet content creators are generating political messages. However audiences are not connecting with show segments. Getting the right clips of shows to be heard by those seeking those conversations is a problem that can address. :Some radio shows that do offer archives, (American Entrepreneur, Free Talk Live), but parsing of the show and repositioning the content into topic areas is not done. can create tools to help in the automation of that process. Problem: Few individuals are interested in running for public office. tools present a primer for those seeking to run for public office. helps with the recruitment of new candidates to public office because platform planks and current affairs on issues are gathered and easily duplicated and tweaked. Problems can surface with man on the street encounters. helps the voters, journalist, community activists. services and tools would give campaign workers insights to citizens they encounter within a community. enables a handshake of voter ID information obtained from the county board of elections coupled with other content, such as letters to the editor from local newspapers penned by that individual or another household member. Problem: Only one wiki, Wikipedia,org, is available for reading on Amazon's Kindle ebook reader. can build tools to re-deploy wiki content onto that platform. And, wikis of can be deployed on Kindle ebooks too. Amazon.com's Kindle readers now have one wiki choice. The new ebook reader from Amazon.com, now includes free wireless access to Wikipedia.org. can join that platform too. * The selection of titles in the Kindle store continues to grow daily as new digital books, magazines, newspapers, and even blogs are being added. As of October 2008, there are: **Kindle Books (191,250) **Kindle Newspapers (26) **Kindle Blogs (1004) **Kindle Magazines & Journals (18) **Kindle wikis, only 1. Rebecca Cooper, author and teacher of the Kindle Exposed Course, reports upon the five types of hot selling Kindle ebooks for Kindle eBook Readers: # Cooking # Health related. Fitness, exercise, even ebooks about specific health related issues are great sellers. A topic area. # Recreation. Fishing, camping, hiking, golfing, sports in general all seem to sell well. A topic area. # Hobbies and Crafts -- How To Type books such as, "How To Make a Quilt from T-Shirts" # Current Events. Right now, "How to Save on Gas" and Financial Recovery type ebooks are selling very well. A topic area. ---- 4.) What one thing about the initial version will get early customers/users excited about it?* Value. Every customer appreciate value. The value of a collection comes from its completeness. The greater body of work makes the offerings of project more complete, thorough, worthy, modern and with better solution suggestions. The volume of new, original content on the internet is staggering. This flood of data, issues, and ideas needs more organization and controlled re-positining with automation. Robots crafted for wikis and web spiders that are customized for certain, localized markets for a redeployement of webs of links, hold the highest hope for staying current. Wikis, a vital part of the internet, have been fully reliant upon volunteer editing. However, new wiki projects have not been able to attract the gross number of necessary volunteer hours to build wikis from scratch. The value of comes with robust software development to produces a suite of tools to utilities to continually generate wiki content. With investment of human editing time can be greatly reduced. appreciated what already exists and builds upon the present legacy offerings. As a later arrival, cooperation is forged, not competition. ---- 5.) Who do you envision using your product?* Media creators * Newspaper companies ** Post-Gazette ** City Paper ** South Pittsburgh Reporter ** etc. * TV News ** KDKA TV ** WTAE TV ** WPXI TV ** PCN TV ** etc. * Local radio stations and shows ** KDKA Radio's Marty Griffin show ** KQV ** WMNY 1360AM ** etc. * Syndicated radio talk shows ** Free Talk Live ** NPR's All Things Considered ** etc. * Bloggers ** PghComet.blogspot.com ** Mark Rauterkus & Running Mates ** etc. * Podcasters ** Most of the podcasters at TalkShoe.com ** etc. * Video Podcasters ** Reason TV ** Lawrence Lessig ** etc. * Educational outlets and School Districts ** Pittsburgh Public Schools ** Catholic Schools ** Private Schools ** Language teachers * Other wiki owners ** Moving content from one wiki to another helps trim dead-end projects. Some of the 7,000 wikis at wiki.com have been without an update in months. Abandoned sites can be sucked into our wikis and if they are left homeless, they can be eliminated. Community leaders * Political folks ** Informed voters ** Want-a-be candidates ** candidates, ** elected officials, ** journalists ** governement staffers and bureacrats ** academics / teachers * Economic Development folks ** South Side Local Development Corporation ** etc. * Consumers and internet surfers ** Researchers of neighborhoods for business investments ** Researchers of neighborhoods for home and life investments ** Letter to Editor authors ** Letter to Editor readers ** People interested in learning about sports, athletes, teams, conditioning, skills, drills, etc. ** People interested in local matters: Where to live, insights on schools, people, politicians, political campaigs, fixing problems. ** Amazon's Kindle ebook readers ** iPhone users and others with portable devices seeking cutting edge content, such as the Olympic Games Field Guide. Advertisers * Since Wikia.com has advertising content, advertisers will be using the products too. ---- 6.) Who are your potential competitors? Why are you better than them?* is sure to have competitors when seeking to obtain venture capital investments. will have to compete to get the attention and access investors for more limited funding to help fuel future growth. Competition = Proprietary Publishers In the marketplace, because of the open-source nature of the content on the wikis, we'll face competitors with aims of producing closed, proprietary content. So, copyright publishers could be deemed a potential competitor. is better than the competition that uses closed and proprietary content because can easily team and transfer among the open-source world that includes Wikipedia.org, the flagship of all wikis. :An encyclopedia company, (i.e., Britanica), or an Almanac publisher (Farmers' Almanack) could be a competitive threat if it was seeking to catalog opinions from all range of perspectives. Trade publishers are gatekeepers and that is NOT the role of an all points of view wiki, such as with our Fix Network. : NBC Sports, a television network with a contractual exclusive rights in specific markets to events, such as the 2010 Olympics, could be a potential competitor to w:c:AforAthlete. There is much to cover and much to do in sports and the Olympics given its 10,000 competitors. Rather, would expect to be a sub-contractor for NBC, not a competitor. Competition = Search Engines Google would be an possible competitor. * Google sells advertising. The wiki pages from has advertising too. * Google would be a possible competitor for search engine utilization. Google has its own search and Wikia.com has its own search too. * Google could be a competitor for the people who surf the internet. Google is a great source for finding information on the web. As a person researches an issue, that person could go to Google to find information. * Knol.Google.com is a possible competitor, but it is geared to experts, not grass-roots content. Other search engine providers could be called competitors too: * Yahoo * AskJeeves Localized readers are possible competitors. * Topix.net. Content is shallow. * Citizendium.org. Content is not open sourced. ---- 7.) How do you plan to make money from your product and when do you anticipate generating revenue?* * Subscriptions * Newspaper investors * Value added special sales ** Contract with Lenovo for the 2012 Olympics * Retail sales of products ** Buy a book / CD / DVD, A for Athlete * Bulk sales promotions * Consulting ** Leagues ** Private label wikis *** Industry groups, etc. ---- Technology 8.) Describe the system architecture and the toolsets you plan on using to develop the product (e.g. operating environments, languages, databases, etc.).* Text dominates with . : The wiki framework is open source. All the code is available for review so one core element of the technology puzzle is clearly evident and visible without the need to reverse engineer. : Text also drives a large part of the content that is created and posted elsewhere. The tools of , at a simple level, simply deploys cut-and-paste to migrate content and pointers (URLs that are also text chunks) from newspapers, blogs and other wikis to the Fix Network. : Scripts and software tools, both open source and not, that handle text can be deployed. :: RunRev :: PERL :: OpenOffice.org macros ' Operations' (i.e., the manufacturing process) of includes specific steps. First, content needs to be scraped. Second, the scraped bits need to be parsed. Third, the parsed bits need to be uploaded and published. :To scrape is to gather and harvest content for the . Freedictionary.com says scrape is: To remove (an outer layer, for example) from a surface by forceful strokes of an edged or rough instrument: scraped the wallpaper off before painting the wall. * tools need to be strong and forceful in the extraction of content. ** Gems and insights can be buried at the end of an article or a 3-hour talk show. Easy Scrape: ::* A simple way to scrape content is to fetch it from a RSS feed. can get content from news-reader feeds on regular basis. Harder Scrape: :::* In the wake Hurricane Katrina, as millions of people were displaced, many volunteers sprang into action to help re-connect people. Lists of refugees (i.e., the names of the people stranded at shelters), travelers on mass-exodus buses headed to other cities, and all sorts of other name, date and location insights were scraped from wherever they could be found. Newspapers printed names. Red Cross shelters posted lists. Church basement boarders were revealed. ---- 9.) What is your anticipated timeline for developing your product during the five month program (include prototype, alpha, or limited beta test, if applicable)? Can you describe your plans for gathering user feedback during AlphaLab? Do you own the rights to your technology?* Timeline Week 0 * Since the first two wikis exist and are already up and running, one aspect of the prototype is done. Nonetheless, both need attention to sizzle. * Re-tool and sizzle content already placed on existing wikis. Week 1 * Open the Fix Network of 50+ wikis, one per state. These placeholders sites can begin to attract attention from other wiki advocates from around the nation. * The robot project list, 4Rs Projects needs a full evaluation with peer review to brainstorm, couple, craft and complete and deploy projects while setting priorities. * Legal advisors interviewed. Week 2 * Incorporate the business. * Make a plan for job growth and employment. * A cadre of trusted, contracted programmers need to be recruited, retained and managed for those projects that can't be done in-house. * The B2B sales pitch to mainstream media outlets throughout Pennsylvania needs to be completed. A multi-step approach to meet with them needs to be organized. * Sales and content partner agreements with the Post-Gazette, Pittsburgh City Paper and other outlets in Allegheny County need to begin by week five. Week 3 * Legal advisors hired. * gets deployed to alternative containers, such as CDs, DVDs, USB drives, by week 10. Week 4 * Contacts established with class A mainstream media outlet in PA. * Radio show for local content on wikis begins. Week 5 * Legal guidelines for content documented. * Contacts established with class B mainstream media outlet in PA. * reaches 8,000 pages * International sports feeds become semi-automated for AforAthlete Week 6 * Legal guidelines for ownership and VC documented. * Semi automated scraping tools for moving content from RSS to wiki pages operational. * Telephone auto-dialer pilot to 4,000 residents. Week 7 * First VC pitch / interviews begin. * Operations: The Parsing logic established and documented in a white paper. * Outreach to governments begins. Week 8 * Extensive business planning documents completed. * Outreach to class A sports and fitness sites begings. * Parsing of podcasts complete. Week 10-15 * Parsing tools deployed. * Hosting informational and sales seminars begins. * YouTube, and other vblogger sites scraped, parsed, posted. Weeks 16-18 * Radio show moves to 2 hours per day and 6 days per week. * YouTube automation completed. * Text to speech operations documented with white paper. * Wiki to wiki content migration tools deployed. Weeks 19-20 * Full scraping of media site (such as a newspaper) with parsing and re-deployement to wiki pages should be operational by week 18. * A robust and up-to-date local wiki, should be completed with more than 20,000 pages by week 16. * Auto-dialer interface completed and operational. Gathering User Feedback * In the B2B situations, the feedback will be easily measured according to the deals that are brokered with the mainstream media and . * Easy benchmarks exist: page views, web traffic to attribution sites, wiki contributors, wiki edits by people, wiki edits by posting robots, total pages in each wiki, number of languages, downloads of tools and number of types of pages. * The telephone auto-dialer operations are going to occur for feedback, so as to build the database of editors and content providers. Rights to technology * will own the tools it creates. The process and smarts of the scraping, parsing, posting of content to the various wiki depots is owned technology where the rights are with . The sources and the outcomes are owned by either the creators (Post-Gazette, etc.) or else are open source / public domain / GFDL. * The outreach projects that are organized and managed by , such as a lecture series and radio show, generates content. Therefore, owns the rights to that content. ---- 10.) What do you anticipate to be the most challenging technical hurdle(s)?* Pulling large data chunks from the wikis onto localized storage containers will be a challenge with time and space. : The localized storage containers are sure to change throughout time. :: Upgrades of tech devices are sure to keep the production folks nimble. Burning data to a CD, DVD, Blue-Ray Disk, USB Drive, Kindle ebook (from Amazon), laptop, tablet, iPod, hand-held iPhone or new as of October 2008, Google Phone, is going to be present moving targets. What will be available in London at the time of the 2012 Olympics for our Field Guide to the 2012 Olympics is hard to predict. : The time elements with data is sure to present a challenge. Getting updates from the wikis to the localized storage containers is going present a challenge. :: The content that is deployed at the start of the Olympics is going to need fresh layers of news to reside with archived content. ::: When watching the Olympic marathon at the mile 20 mark, it would be great to have the field guide report the 10-mile split times, in real time. The combination of twitter, news feeds, real-time updates and first hand accounts will need to merge and freshen existing data hosted externally from the network / internet. The most challenging hurdles for are not expected to be technical ones. Rather, the most serious challenges might prove to be legal challenges and the associated turf wars that could spawn from content ownership and re-use of factual data. : NBC has the television rights for broadcasting Olympic competitions in North America. The video we obtain through our sources could be uploaded to field guides draw the attention of NBC lawyers. ---- Team 11.) List all of the team members' names, education, work experience, and accomplishments. Please note if your team has previous history working together and describe the project/work context. Upload team resumes here and save the files in the following format: Last Name_First Name _ Resume.doc or .pdf (Example: Smith_Mary_ Resume.pdf).* File limited to .zip, .doc, .docx, .ppt, .pptx, .xls, .xlsx, .pdf * Mark Rauterkus * Norbert Roma * Francesmary Modugno ---- 12.) Please describe each team member’s expected role during AlphaLab and how their background is applicable. What other commitments (e.g. employment, consulting, school/education, etc.) do the founders have during the duration of the program, if any? Please provide as much detail as possible, including timing/hours of said commitments. Mark Rauterkus will be the lone employee. Others would be contrators or board-members as the project becomes a business. Mark Rauterkus background is extensive in publishing and local community work. In a prior time, his imprint, Sport Support Syndicate, released 100 titles (mostly books, but also computer software, multimedia and ebooks). His training with a journalism degree helps with the interactions with mainstream media in the weeks to come. Mark Rauterkus is available for full-time work on this project. ---- 13.) Will every member of the team have employment authorization to work and/or manage the new company should it be selected into the AlphaLab program? If no, please explain. If yes, what is the form of employment authorization? : (please provide details for each team member, i.e., US citizen, permanent resident, employment authorization, H-1B status, etc.) Mark Rauterkus would have employment authorization and is a US Citizen, resident of Pittsburgh. ---- Current Status 14.) Describe the progress you have made to date on your product, including the stage of product development (e.g. lines of code, functionality, built prototype) and any interaction with potential customers/users.* Two wikis, FixPA (political) and A for Athlete, (sports) moved to Wikia.com in May 2008. :As of October 2008, both wikis have more than 1,000 pages of content. ---- 15.) What else would you like us to know about you and your company? Please include relevant references or links or upload any additional documents here and save the files in the following format: Last Name_First Name_Type of Supplemental Material.doc or pdf or ppt or xls (Example: Smith_Mary_ Executive Summary.doc). Category:4Rs